Equipment test under fire

[Andy_Stephenson]

"An attorney for the company that makes Leon County's voting equipment told state and county officials Thursday it was "very foolish and irresponsible" for Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho to let an outside group try poking holes in vote-tabulation security systems."

snip

"But Sancho said the equipment recently put through its paces by Black Box Voting will never be used again in a regular election. He said the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization was closely monitored as it tried to "hack" into the system - and that even if Black Box had left some bugs behind, his office has ordered an upgraded model that will be used in the 2006 elections."

snip

"In a blistering letter to Sancho, all seven county commissioners and Paul Craft, the head of voting-system certification in Hood's elections office, Lindroos said Sancho compromised the security of the system by letting Black Box Voting try to crack it. He said Sancho may have "intentionally and negligently allowed unauthorized personnel to make modifications to your system that are not discernible to you or your IT staff. "Aside from potential violations of our licensing agreements and intellectual property rights, we believe this to have been a very foolish and irresponsible act," Lindroos wrote."

snip

"Bev Harris, founder of Black Box Voting in Renton, Wash., said she made three visits to Tallahassee and worked with two computer-security experts between February and May. They tried unsuccessfully to penetrate the computer system from outside the courthouse but Sancho then allowed access to a secure room - where only one of his employees has the codes to operate the computers."

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/11858709.htm

So Bev was not really successful like she alluded she was. They HAD to be in the same room as the system to crack it. That is quite different from what she sad she did. So her sensationalism is not quite what it was made out to be. Yet again.